So the last Israelis are out of Gaza. How should the newly independent Palestinians celebrate? How about by burning all the synagogues to the ground?
And some people say there isn't anti-Semitism in this conflict (Eric Muller with the link).
PS: By the way, I did see that the Israelis originally promised to tear down the Synagogues themselves, then changed their minds. Big deal. The Gaza pullout already exacted a tremendous emotional toll on the Israeli populace and military--a giant step toward peace which, one might point out, was made with no promise of comparable concessions by the Palestinian side. It is not at all unreasonable to spare these soldiers the further trauma of having to tear down their own holy places. The Palestinian protestation is just another indication of their unapologetically maximalist positions and failure to even consider compromise. And in any event, respecting the holy places of other religions shouldn't be on the negotiating table anyway. Anyway you cut it, even if (like me) you supported the Gaza pullout, this was deplorable.
Parallel it with the destruction of statues of Saddam in Baghdad, or statues of Hitler in Berlin, and I would agree.
ReplyDeleteRemember one thing, the most important thing.
Gaza was Palestinian territory. It was invaded and occupied by Israel.
Oh, and look "Semite" up in the dictionary some time. You should find that the term INCLUDES Paletinians. Chambers says it covers "all peoples speaking Semitic languages...including Hebrew and Arabic".
blackraven, I'm not quite sure what you are getting at.
ReplyDeleteThe invasion I referred to was (if I recollect right) 1967.
TP: Anti-semitism is traditionally used to refer to anti-Jewish activities. Maybe it's a trick of language--but I claim no responsibilty for how English evolved.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, you're conflating "Jew" and "Palestinian". Is the conflict one against Israel, or world Jewry? This is critical. If this is an Israeli/Palestinian conflict, then it is one between nations, similar to India/Pakistan or China/Taiwan (and one where I happen to back Israel). If the conflict is one against JEWS, however, then this is a call for a reinvigorated Holocaust. Synagogues are not "Israeli." They're Jewish. Burning them down is not an attack on Israelis but Jews. If, in three years Palestine was zoning that land and wished to make it into an apartment complex or whatever, that would be different. This was an expression of hate, not against Israel (in which case the validity would be a function of how much blame we ascribe to Israel--another day's topic) but against JEWS (who apparently as a religion are now comparable to Hitler and Saddam).
probligo, i think it is more important to remember that Gaza was actually occupied by Egypt until Israel invaded during the 6 Day War.
ReplyDeleteas for the burining of the synagogues...i can sort of understand why they did it. by no do i think it was right, but i can undertand where it is coming from.
it's still pretty damned low though...
Naw, burn down every mosque in the world.
ReplyDeleteThen we'd be getting somewhere.
To the socialists on this board, see you on the battlefield.